This session we had to make do without Elyndor’s player.
We moved back down to second level, and Minig the Nimble wanted to start by scouting south: He had a suspicion about how the corridors might go, and expected a small chamber in or close to the center of an imagined square. He suspected there might be the base of that crystal guardian, and probably loot.

With that done he wanted to pull one of the heads off a pedestal to find out what would happen then. We took some time to discuss how this might be accomplished with as little risk as possible, and Farin advertised his idea of blocking off dangerous areas with barricades made of broken furniture or coffins.

So we went south and discovered that Minig was not exactly right, but also not completely wrong. The western branch ended in a dead end, the eastern one had a portcullis like the one up north, so there would have to be a pressure plate as well. There was also the dead body of a kobold. And to the south the path just ended.

It turned out that to the west was a secret door (but no trigger to open it); to the south there did not seem to be one; to the east we identified the pressure plate, looted the kobold (now Minig had a well-sized spear for his short stature) and kept going to find that there was indeed a base of the statue, just without a room or loot.
And the statue did not react to their presence. It was solely focused on the trigger of the pressure plates.

At this point we got attacked by a ghoul that had sneaked up on us from gods-know-where, and Farin, Willem and Hermione fought it, and finally overcame it after many missed attacks, but luckily successful saves against paralyzation. Hermione turned out to be a pretty effective fighter because she hit more often than the big guys combined. Especially Willem was on an unlucky streak, missing the enemy’s AC the whole time.

Sarcophagus

After a short rest we abandoned this loot-starved area and went through all the corridors to the big sarcophagus on its dais.

Around it we found the scattered bones of some 30 to 40 persons whose flesh had been consumed by someone or something, and the air smelled strongly of wet rot. Opposite the sarcophagus was a pillar carrying a human or elven skull – similar to the one over in the other room with the four pillars. On the walls we found murals and unknown scripts, and the depiction of a spiked mace with a lion head crowning the grip. That arrested Minig’s attention, as he was here particularly with the goal of finding and appropriating a legendary weapon.

Farin inspected the sarcophagus itself, looking for engineering flaws. None of those were found, but the sarcophagus was covered in odd runes top to bottom … runes that reminded us very much of those found in the book lifted from the nearby altar. We deduced that someone had interred a creature (a strong vampire, perhaps?) in here and bound it with the runes.

Here is where we hesitated. We did not feel equipped to confront a vampire lord.

But we decided to copy the runes with charcoal on paper for analyses back in Wildehaven, where we know scholars. This is where Willem triggered a crossbow trap. It clicked. But it did not shoot. Turned out there was a hidden mounted crossbow in the wall, but it had rotted and failed, so the bolt still rested peacefully in its groove. In the north wall we discovered a similar trap, this one with a functional crossbow. So we were lucky that Willem went up from the south.

Now it was time to play with skulls. Farin opposed the idea but was outvoted. We went back to the four-skull-room and attempted to move them, which failed, as they were all inexplicably fixed to their bases. Then we attempted to turn them — and succeeded with two of them. They opened two secret doors. Quite obviously one of them was the access to the sarcophagus room from the crossing with the un-openable secret door. It was triggered by the human/elf skull, from either side. Which was the other?

Ghouls!

Turns out the other was the unmarked dead end in the south, now teeming with ghouls. And Farin happened to walk first this time, and to run into them. Surprise-roll: Failed. Farin was suprised and could not defend, and so he got hit, lost two hit points, and also, even as a resistant dwarf, failed his save and got paralyzed for — dice roll, dice roll — 130 minutes.

Minig had two bottles of Holy Water from Elyndor, so he pulled one from his belt and threw it through the gap at Ghoul 1. A hit! But the damage came out 1, and splash damage on Ghoul 2 also came out 1. Apparently this bottle of Holy Water had spoiled over the days. Hermione stabbed the Ghoul, but paid for it: With the dwarf paralyzed, the creature turned its attention on her and bit her. Luckily, she saved against paralyzation.

Now Willem wades in an steps over his paralyzed comrade to strike with his mace. Once again: miss.
Minig pulled the paralyzed dwarf out through the open door into the sarcophagus room, out of the way, then stepped back in to throw his second, and last, Holy Water flask. MISS! But it shattered against the wall and splashed both targets to its full effect, killing the first one. Little Hermione threw caution to the winds, trampled across the smoking ruin of Ghoul 1 and stabbed Ghoul 2. MISS! Ghoul 2 scratched her in turn, but she again succeeded on the save. Willem shouldered the Halfling out of the way and attacked again: MISS! The player cried out in frustration, as he had not hit on any attack at all this whole session.

Minig was out of Holy Water, but one last flask dangled from Farin’s bandoliers. Minig grabbed it, but rolled a natural 1. The vial shattered on the dwarf’s chest, dousing the paralyzed hero with Holy Water (good for him, should the Ghouls win that match!) while the shards cut Minig for 2 damage.

Hermione wasn’t strong enough to get back to the front, she was blocked behind Willem. The Ghouls attacked Willem, failed, then Willem, with a short prayer to Tah, struck with all his might.
And finally hit. He crushed Ghoul 2 under his mace.
Neither Minig nor Hermione could get to the front line, had to wait things out. The third Ghoul bit Willem for 4 damage, but the stoic warrior took it in stride, succeeded in his save against paralyzation, and rolled a 19 on his own attack, shattering the undead fiend. The path was clear. Victory!

Sneaky work

While the others waited around Farin to get command over his limbs back, Minig silently plodded forward into the area where the Ghouls had come from. He found a corridor bending back to the north beyond the area we knew — potentially leading to the locked zombie room from the south, just as the fly-room should from the north. He also encountered a grimy room saturated with the stench of decay, with a huge marble table on a filthy rug, and two oil paintings of a stern looking couple that seemed to watch the little intruder from their frames.

Underneath the rug was, to Minig’s surprise, just stone, no trap. On the table was a small battery of empty and dried vials with a smattering of remains of old liquids. The Ghouls must have held out in here for quite some time but did little active damage. But why were they here: for one reason, it seemed: to guard someone.

In the southeastern corner of the room there was a filthy cage, high, but with a small basis. In it, completely motionless, was some creature with grey, rotten skin, much like a ghoul itself, but with long, silver-grey hair, and locked up. It did not move and its face was turned fixedly to the corner, obscuring its face. No traps were apparent, but it seemed as if the creature might explode into terrible action if anyone was to step too close to the bars. The stillness of the creature, coupled with the long, silken, but dirty hair, was very unsettling. A ghoul-infected elf? Was that even possible? Or a cursed one? Minig was very worried that the creature would bite off his fingers if he stepped too close, and that it would howl and make a ruckus if he simply attracted its attention from afar … and there was no knowing what would answer.

To the great relief of the rest of the party he broke off his expedition and returned to report.
Everyone was worried about our wounds and the depleted state of our equipment, so we waited for the dwarf priest to get back up, and then we chose to sod off. We went back up the stairs to rest, get back Farin’s spells, heal up, and then return home come daylight. We had a mass of treasure to carry, even though most of it was “just plain old” silver. Adventurers are hard to please when it comes to coinage. But who can blame them given the outrageous prices of Holy Water, and the necessity to spend money on training to get a much-coveted up-level?

Gold is life.

And so we went back to Wildehaven, running into one random encounter.

More Wildehaven